Cruelty-Free Company Search – Seeing “not tested on animals” on a bottle doesn’t mean much. You’ve got to dig deeper to find the truly cruelty-free products. PETA has you covered.

No More Dirty Looks – The green beauty OG. The ladies behind NMDL have literally written the book on clean beauty and you should definitely read it if you are passionate about greening your routine (or curious about what is actually so nasty about those “nasties” we want to avoid in our products). It's a brilliant book which I’m always flipping in and out of, looking things up. NMDL also have a great blog which is definitely worth checking out each week – No More Dirty Looks – the posts are really interesting as are the comments that usually follow each one – lots of other women sharing their experiences, opinions and new products.

APPS

The following apps are useful for staying up-to-date about brands, ingredients, company ethics, research and regulation compliance:

EWG SkinDeep – Explore the safety of individual cosmetic ingredients plus over 69,000 products. This is the resource for anyone who cares about what goes into their skincare (that ought to be everyone). No drama, no editorializing, no opinions: just thousands of common (and not so common) ingredients and their rankings from 0 (harmless) to 10 (poison). The Skin Deep Database also gives rankings to hundreds of beauty and skincare products, but if you aren’t sure about a product’s safety and it isn’t featured, simply check out its ingredients. here is also now a SkinDeep app which is available for both iOS & Android users! **Skin Deep is a valuable resource, but some brands manipulate their rating, then use their scores as a selling point. This article from Edible Facial explains how to make the most of Skin Deep.

Think Dirty App – Use your phone to scan the barcode of cosmetics to find just how clean they really are. It’ll even give you cleaner options, if needed. Using the app is super simple; just type in a product name (or scan the product barcode) and Think Dirty provides you with that product’s ingredient list, a toxicity rating of each ingredient and an overall toxicity rating from 0-10, 10 being the most toxic. Think Dirty will also tell you what the ingredients are used for, what their health impacts may be and if the product in question uses animal derived ingredients. Bonus: it also shows if a product is certified organic or cruelty-free. Suddenly, going green just got way easier. You can download Think Dirty in the app store or from their website, thinkdirtyapp.com.

Good Guide – Review over 120,000 products and create your own personal lists. Good Guide also checks out factors like a product’s environmental impact and if a company has a climate change policy, its Freedom House Score and more. It’s easy to use with just a few taps.

Books

This book is an excellent introduction to navigating between safe, unsafe, and impostor products. Authors Siobhan O’Connor and Alexandra Spunt have devoted chapters to makeup, skincare, nail and hair products. They even give awesome product recommendations at a variety of prices. And because the natural beauty world is expanding faster than any book can be printed, be sure to check out the No More Dirty Looks blog which stays up-to-date on all the latest and greatest in fabulous natural products.

The author, Stacy Malkan, is a longtime consumer health advocate and a co-founding member of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. This well-documented book explores how a lack of regulation in the cosmetics industry has created our current system in which big industry players routinely–and without fanfare–put hazardous chemicals in our personal care products. And the dozens of stories of scientists, activists, cancer survivors, politicians, and everyday consumers is eye-opening, occasionally infuriating, and entirely inspiring.

Saving the best for last. Yes, this book is literally a dictionary of cosmetic ingredients. That is what it’s called and that is what it is. It’s a wonderful thing to have by your desk and be able to grab whenever you stumble upon some crude little word you can’t quite identify when reading up on you new skincare crush’s ingredients. It lists pretty much everything you’d ever find bottled up in a cosmetic container and explains potential risks and benefits.